a sailor’s song: lost love letters of world war ii

It started with a box of forgotten war letters hidden in my parents’ attic. A World War II Coast Guard sailor and his wife maintained their marriage through war letters in quite an unusual way-with their own secret code. He was a musician playing the patriotic tunes of war, she was home forging her own music career. Their letters document not only their love story but the little-known role of music in war as he served on the U.S.S. General A.W. Greely.

Most days, sailors performed in military and dance bands on deck, easing the anxiety of young troops heading to war and healing war-weary troops coming home I learned about my parents’ early marriage and war experiences through their letters after they passed away. A few years later, my brother gave me the most valuable letter-one with the secret code allowing my father to let my mother know his ship’s location-a highly illegal act at the time. His letters offered her a nugget of hope that every war wife craved. Here, together with historical records, war diaries, news articles and deck logs, their intriguing war story lives on.